Wednesday 6 June 2018

Book Review: Made for Walking

My faithful readers know how important boots are to me, living in a wetland! What an idea for a book, showing the changes in fashion over time! I think the title clever, too. My fave is the 1964 French designer André Courrèges boot, AKA the Go Go boot!

🎶🎶🎶These Boots Are Made For Walkin', I can just hear Nancy Sinatra singing it!

In the words of renowned designer Beth Levine, "Boots moved into prominence the same time The Pill did. Both were symbols of a woman’s new freedom and emancipation."

You can view a few pages on the publisher's website: Made for Walking: A Modest History of the Fashion Boot. They sent it to me for review.

The book is an interesting one. There are lots of photos, as well as a pictograph, which compares boots and boot shapes and styles over time: the riding boot, Edwardian ankle boot, the Russian boot, rain boot, Cuissarde boot (over the thighs).

There are end notes, a bibliography, and an index. Peake has done his research! The author, Andy Peake, is a writer and a museum curator. He also writes a blog.


ATGLEN, PA - Social meets fashion history in the tantalizing story of the boot from the Roaring Twenties and Prohibition to online shopping and fashion blogs. Weaving together such unlikely elements as Glam Rock, the martyrdom of Joan of Arc, and the Iran-Contra scandal, it shows how the modern fashion boot plays with our ideas of gender, straddling the line between practical and stylish, between fashion and fetish.
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5 comments:

DUTA said...

I remember Nancy Sinatra's song with fondness. Lovely voice and song!
I've got boots, but rarely wear them as our winters are usually short, mild and dry. I, however, appreciate a good pair of boots. The book you've reviewed sounds interesting and worth reading.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Have never had much success with boots. They always seem to rub my heel or overarch my foot. But they sure look good on other women.

William Kendall said...

Thanks for pointing that one out!

Powell River Books said...

When I was teaching I loved to wear boots in the winter, even in Southern California. In the early days we had to wear dresses and they kept my legs warm on yard duty. Now I wear boots of a different kind. There are my high top hiking boots good for walking with weak ankles and my gumboots for wet work. - Margy

Linda McLaughlin said...

Oh, this sounds like a really fun book to browse through. Great review.